Wired’s Evan Ratliff Found After 25 Days

Wired writer Evan Ratliff wanted to see if he could really disappear despite a $5000 bounty on him. So he started the “Vanish” experiment and managed to elude searchers for 25 days before being caught. Wired has the story and it's pretty neat.

The idea for the contest started with a series of questions, foremost among them: How hard is it to vanish in the digital age? Long fascinated by stories of faked deaths, sudden disappearances, and cat-and-mouse games between investigators and fugitives, I signed on to write a story for Wired about people who’ve tried to end one life and start another. People fret about privacy, but what are the consequences of giving it all up, I wondered.

Wow, I just read the entire thing, and its amazing.

Nice! I just got the magazine today and its on the front cover! Guess i gotta read it now!

Nice read.

Originally Posted by Eragon Dragonslayer

Nice! I just got the magazine today and its on the front cover! Guess i gotta read it now!

same here!

Definitely good read. Someone found his ATM withdrawl before it was posted to his account. That's creepy

That is absolutely insane.

What gave him away? It's not interesting enough to read that long a story.

Very cool read. I think I would have shared a lot of the same feelings as he did about the whole scheme. It would be really stressful to have to be so paranoid all the time and not be able to befriend anyone real. But aside from that, the experience as a whole would be really exciting to me. I would love to have the opportunity to do the same thing.

What got him caught was the challenges from Wired that required him to expose himself at specific locations. One was a bookstore to attend a book reading. Two guys staked out there and waited for him.

He was low on cash and got desperate, basically. Bit on the challenge and got caught. He should have just did some odds and ends jobs like was was already doing (like the nacho handout job).

Originally Posted by BladeVenom

It's not interesting enough to read that long a story.

Yes it is.

It was a great read!

Wow.

Just finished reading the whole thing....wow. Amazing.

Awesome story.

I'm impressed at the lengths some people went to to catch this guy. I'm also impressed, that with thousands of people on the hunt for this man, he lasted as long as he did under a fake name with no identification.

Very good read. First time I read something from start to finish in quite a while due to internet ADD and it was very well worth it.

Great read! I was surprised how it kept me reading.

Great link. Thank you.

Now how much would it cost to get a driver's license under a fake identity?

They would not have caught him if he had stayed off the web and not given clues.

What this story showed to me is that it must be very easy to hide, because this guy was practically telling people where he was and he still didn't get caught until Wired took steps to make him very easy to find.

Originally Posted by DeadlyAura

Awesome story.

I'm impressed at the lengths some people went to to catch this guy. I'm also impressed, that with thousands of people on the hunt for this man, he lasted as long as he did under a fake name with no identification.

If he hadn't gotten sloppy, he would have gotten away with it. Hell, if he'd just used a different Face book account to monitor the search, he would have gotten away with it.

Then again, I don't see why he needed a twitter account at all (unless that was a requirement for the contest).

Nevertheless, it was a great read.

so, whats Osamas bounty compared to this one? And why hasnt anyone found him yet?